For anything you write in public relations, your headline and intro (first sentence, also referred to as lead, lede or hook) need to work in harmony -- not just with each other, but with the other elements of the piece.
When it comes to headlines and intros, public relations is different than journalism. At most newspapers, radio and TV stations, reporters file their stories and editors write the headline. That's due to specialization but also the news hole.
A newspaper reporter has no idea what page the story might run on and how much space there is for the headline, so it makes no sense for the reporter to spend a lot of time writing a killer headline that doesn't fit on the page.
In public relations, you write your own headlines. Sometimes, it's for products you control like newsletters, and space isn't an issue.
But if you're sending out an oped or press release, you've got to write a headline that sums up the piece, could work in a variety of spaces and grabs the attention of readers and editors.
Mix hard and soft
That's why it makes sense to give editors more options by mixing and matching your headlines, subheadlines and hooks.
You don't necessarily want a hard, traditional news headline and on top of a hard subheadline and a hard hook. Say you're the press liaison for the state lottery and somebody wins a big prize.
Chicago man wins $86.4 million Super Lotto
Retired truck driver bought $1 ticket and a bean burrito
CHICAGO -- A 76-year-old man became the latest instant millionaire today after claiming his $86.4 million Super Lotto prize ...
Going with a hard-news approach every time means repeating the same Five W's (who, what, when, where and why) three times in a row. It can get boring.
A better choice for public relations is to mix and match.
If you went with a soft lead, put a hard news headline on top.
If you use an attention-grabbing soft headline, put a straight news subheadline beneath it that explains the story.